Mr Wilfred Deable Seward

Mr Wilfred Deable Seward was born in London on 5 March 1887.

Seward had transferred from the Olympic and was on board the Titanic for her trip from Belfast to Southampton although he does not appear to have signed-on for the trip.

When he did eventually sign-on to the Titanic on 4th April 1912, he gave his local address as 5 Shirley Rd., (Southampton) (1). As Chief Pantry Steward he received monthly wages of £4 10s.

On the night of the sinking:

"I remember one of my staff coming to the cabin and telling me that the ship had bumped something. I didn’t think it was anything important so I just lay on my bunk, and read on. Shortly afterwards, someone called, ‘You’d better get up, there’s something wrong.’ I went on deck and was told we had hit an iceberg.

When he arrived on deck he said he helped passengers on with their life-jackets, then he made his way to lifeboat 5 but then went to his allocated boat (#3.)

I was ordered into a boat; there were about fifty or sixty other people with me. When we were being lowered and still a long way above the water, the boat capsized us and we were all pitched into the water."

When Seward testified at the British Inquiry. He did not mention the boat being capsized and other survivors accounts only mention difficulty with lowering the boat. For his attendence on the fifteenth day of the hearing he received expenses of £10.8s.

In 1954 he moved to Ballymoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland and in 1962 the newspaper The Constitution carried an article telling his story.

Wilfred Deable Seward on 13th December 1963.